Football: Dialog Champions League Super Eight Round from next Saturday

The clash between Sri Lanka Air Force and Sri Lanka Army will herald the Super Eight Round of the Dialog Champions League on Saturday (27) at the Racecourse ground in Colombo. 

The match will commence at 4.00pm. 

All matches in the Super Eight Round will conclude by September 25 with the top team from the group emerging as champions. 

On the same day at 6.00pm at the same venue Renown SC will take on Blue Star SC. 

This game is being treated as the opening ceremony of the contest. 

The contest is being organised by the Sri Lanka Football Federation with Dialog as the sponsors. 

Matches will be worked off on Saturdays and Sundays at the Race Course and CR and FC grounds. 

There are some matches during midweek as well. 

In the first round of the Dialog Champions League 18 teams contested where 72 matches were played. 

From Group A, Sri Lanka Army SC, Solid SC Anuradhapura, Colombo FC and Blue Star SC Kalutara. 

From Group B Renown SC, New Youngs SC Wennappuwa, Sri Lanka Navy SC and Sri Lanka Air Force SC qualified to be in the Super Eight Round. 

Sri Lanka Army is the only team to qualify on an unbeaten note. 

They played eight matches with seven wins and one draw. 

They scored 24 goals in the competition and only four goals were scored against them. 

They collected 22 points to be Group A champions. 

Renown SC emerged Group B champions. 

They played eight matches, obtained seven wins; they lost one to Navy SC. 

They scored 26 goals and had seven goals against them. 

Altogether they collected 21 points. 

In the entire competition 226 Yellow Cards were shown in 72 games and 21 Red Cards. 

In the first round 243 goals were scored. 

The most number of goals in the tournament had been scored by a foreign player Jobb Michael, who had booted 14 goals in eight matches. 

He represents Renown SC. 

The champions and runners-up of last year have qualified for the Super Eight. 

Last year’s champions were Colombo FC with Renown as the runners-up. 

The winning team will receive a cash award of Rs. Seven and a half Lakhs and the runners-up will receive Rs. Five Lakhs.